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As states, including Indiana, continue to battle newly reported COVID-19 cases daily, national and state health officials are trying to keep up with the demand for critical care supply needs such as ventilators and personal protective equipment. The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) was tasked with identifying, tracking, and determining the logistics to transport necessary mechanical ventilators to coronavirus case surge areas when needed within the Hoosier state.

netlogx’ project management resources, who were working with the state on a different health and human services-related engagement, were tapped to help assist with this ventilator-use tracking project. The goal was to develop a real-time accounting of the supply and the demand  needs for hospitals statewide. Ventilators are used to treat the most critically ill COVID-19 patients in respiratory failure.

The netlogx team immediately began collecting contact information and ventilator use and availability data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other healthcare sources. Those sources included durable medical equipment providers, Indiana-based emergency medical services entities, and others who had access to ventilators or anesthesia vents in the state, such as ambulatory surgery centers. Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana that uses ventilators for nursing clinicals, and even veterinarians, who use respiratory equipment to perform surgeries, were also contacted. 

This information was compiled into a comprehensive Indiana ventilator tracking list that was further broken down into ten statewide regions. This list includes the number of ventilators that are already committed to an Indiana hospital’s COVID-19 surge plan, the number of extra ventilators available to ISDH to be deployed, if necessary, and the number of ventilators already deployed to hospitals and in what region of the state were they deployed.

The tracking list is continually updated by netlogx and shared with ISDH, who posts Indiana’s daily ventilator usage by coronavirus patients and non-coronavirus patients on the state government’s COVID-19 website page. IDSH is using this data to help them be better prepared to quickly react to any surge areas to offer this life-saving equipment for Hoosiers battling this pandemic.

 

Figure: Indiana COVID-19 website as of April 24,202o

“I want to give a shout out to everyone who has helped provide this data to increase visibility and transparency; giving Hoosiers the best picture we can about COVID-19’s impact,” said Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box. Dr. Box  made her remarks during Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb’s April 21 COVID-19 briefing press conference. 

netlogx is a highly awarded, two-decade-old consulting services company specializing in Information Risk Management. We guide our clients nationwide to navigate change and make it work for them by solving complex business challenges. For more information, contact Wendy Maple at [email protected] or 317-258-1673.